Computer information systems typically include multiple computing devices. The computing devices may include workstation computers, network equipment, server computers, and the like. The computing devices may generate performance data. For example, a computing device may generate a series of time-stamped data points indicative of Central Processing Unit (CPU) usage. Computing device, such as routers, may generate a data indicative of network traffic volume. And, computing devices, such as storage devices and file servers, may generate data indicative of consumed storage volume and available storage space.
Performance management systems collect and process performance data. The performance data may be used to troubleshoot past incidents, to report on present performance, and to plan for future growth. For example, granular past performance data may be used to identify a root cause of a network outage. Performance data indicative of present performance may be used to demonstrate compliance with service-level agreements (SLAs).
Report generation by performance management systems reflects a difficult computing problem that involves processing large quantities of performance data. For example, generating a report that combines information from multiple sources, such as a Netflow top-n report for example, may invoke great complexity and significant computing resources, such as memory space and processor time.